Last Thursday, March 26th, reporters from Counter Current News, Alternative Media Syndicate, The Anti Media, The Fifth Column, The Greene County Herald, Truth Voice and Cop Block all filled the court room in Xenia, Ohio to witness one of the most bizarre things in the history of the American legal system: a man being convicted of the “crime” of raising money for charity.

Virgil Vaduva is a reporter for the Greene County Herald. He is known throughout Greene County for his tireless activism on several fronts, including fighting for the rights of the poor and homeless. Tuesday, March the 31st, Virgil was sentenced for his “crime” of “panhandling” for the poor. What was the sentence? Judge Murray handed down the maximum sentence of 30 days in jail. He even added extra “punishment” of 100 hours of community service, to be carried out within 90 days.

This happened right after I filmed Officer K. Spinnato harassing a guy for walking in the street. She didn't like that I filmed her being a bully. So she was going to show me who is in charge. Well first she was wrong in demanding my id before she said why she stopped me. Now lessons learned here never argue with the cops that's what court is for. I started to then remembered copblock 101 stay quiet. Except to protect my rights! You can hear all the dispatcher and officer talking over a scanner app. Now 25 mins for a traffic stop when you already know me and know that there are no warrants means you took your time to further harass and intimidate or you are incompetent in your job. I think a little of both because another officer had to get a cheat sheet. This only motivated me to find out how much of a bully Troy Police Officers really are. I continued to follow them for another 3 hours or so. In the next video a Troy Sargent (I believe) tries to intimidate me to leave public property. I tried to call and get names but they require a FOIA request for any information. So this week will be FIOA request week with Troy.

Teacher is harassed and detained by Essex County College Police for speaking the truth on school issues

PORTLAND, Maine - The ACLU of Maine and attorneys for Portland Police Officer Benjamin Noyes have settled a lawsuit brought on behalf of a Bar Harbor couple arrested for using a cell phone to record a police encounter last year.

As part of the settlement, the couple will receive an undisclosed financial sum, and Portland police will be trained to avoid similar incidents. Zach Heiden is the ACLU's legal director.

"This was a case about two people who were observing and videotaping the police doing their job in public," says Zach Heiden, the ACLU's legal director. "That's a right that's protected under the First Amendment and it's an important check on the police potential for abuse of power."

Jill Walker and Sabatino Scattoloni were visiting Portland last May when they observed five police officers put a female motorist through a battery of tests during a traffic stop.

They were charged with "Obstructing Government Administration," searched and interrogated without Miranda warnings and held at the Cumberland County Jail until they could meet bail. Ultimately, the district attorney dropped charges against them.

"We decided to bring this case in order to help make clear that you have the right to observe and record the police as long as you aren't interfering with their work," said Walker. "We hope that nobody else will have to go through what we went through."

The lawsuit charged that the actions of Officer Noyes violated the couple's First Amendment right to peacefully observe and record the police doing their job in public, as well as their Fourth Amendment right to be free from unlawful arrest.

The city of Portland issued a written statement on the settlement, saying that while the decision to arrest the plaintiffs was not the result of their videotaping at the scene, videotaping scenarios will be used as part of the police training sessions.

When Nicholas Langley watched the TV news last month and saw a small Indian man in Madison taken to the ground by police, he texted his lawyer. Langley told him: That's the same maneuver police used on me.

Langely watched as the officer in Madison held the Indian man's hands behind his back, then slipped a leg in front of the man and slammed him face-first into the earth. The man, Sureshbhai Patel, required spinal surgery. Gov. Robert Bentley has since apologized to India.

Langley says a Morgan County deputy in December slipped a leg in front of his legs and propelled him face-first into a concrete floor. Both sides agree Langley was handcuffed at the time.

Lt. Terry Kelly of the Morgan County Sheriff's Office told AL.com that Langley was resisting the deputies' attempt to remove his handcuffs. "They did what is called a front leg sweep," said Kelly during an interview on March 2.

Langley sued today in federal court.

Langley, 31, has no criminal record beyond traffic tickets. He works for a government contractor. He was taken to jail after midnight on Dec. 13, facing two charges over a bottle of liquor found in a backseat in a dry county.

After the leg sweep, one front tooth popped out completely. Lt. Kelly said the tooth was booked into evidence along with the rest of Langley's possessions.

"The tooth wasn't broken, it came out root and all," said Lt. Kelly, who was tasked with investigating the excessive force complaint filed by Langley.

Lt. Kelly said reports from deputies show that Langley resisted officers once inside the jail. "He was very combative," said Kelly. "He was threatening to kill the deputies."

"There is no excuse for slamming a handcuffed man face-first into the ground, let alone into concrete," said Hank Sherrod, Langley's attorney, who also represents Patel in Madison. "This was a brutal act of excessive force that occurs when a deputy believes he will not be held accountable."

The suit names Deputy Brandon Sain as the lone defendant. The suit, which requests a jury trial, alleges excessive force and illegal seizure.

Phillip White, of Cumberland County NJ, died yesterday in custody after being beaten in the street by two Vineland police officers.

Police were arresting White at a home on the 100 block of Grape Street when witnesses say the officers proceeded to beat him brutally after he was already restrained and on the ground.

One of the officers is heard on the dispatch recording saying “Subject under…tried to disarm me.” However, eyewitness Agustin Ayala paints a different story, saying he saw the officers handcuff White and take him to the ground.

Ricardo Garcia, another eyewitness, is outraged. “The guy was out cold,” stated Garcia. “They punched him, stomped him, kicked him and then they let the dog out of the car. The dog bit him on his face and around his body. There’s no call for that. Once a man is handcuffed and unconscious, you should have stuck him in the patrol car and take him to the police station. Instead, they decided to beat him right here.”

White was taken into custody around 11am Tuesday morning and died shortly thereafter.

Portage resident DelRea Good said she did not immediately pull over for the flashing lights behind her because, as a 52-year-old woman traveling alone at 11:21 p.m. on a dark county road, she was concerned for her safety.

Assuming the car behind her was a police officer, Good said she slowed her vehicle, put on her emergency flashers, waved her arm out the window to acknowledge the pursing car and continued for less than a mile where she pulled over into the lighted parking lot at the Kohl's department store in Portage.

The decision not to immediately stop resulted in her being handcuffed and taken to jail by Porter County Sheriff's Department Patrolman William Marshall on a felony charge of resisting arrest. It may also cost her her job, because a nurse cannot work after being convicted of a felony, she said.

"I felt I didn't do anything wrong," Good said. "I got to a safe place and I told him that."

Porter County Sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Larry LaFlower said, "The sheriff's office supports our officer's decision in this matter."

He cited state law requiring motorists to yield to emergency vehicles and said Marshall was driving a fully marked squad car and used the lights and siren.

Marshall wrote in the incident report he initiated the March 20 traffic stop just north of County Road 700 North on northbound County Road 500 West (Airport Road) after clocking Good's car traveling 54 mph in a 35 mph zone. Good told The Times she was unsure how fast she was driving.

Marshall acknowledged Good waved out her car window and turned on her flashers before pulling over less than a mile later in the store parking lot.

Good said Marshall was very angry as he approached her car and said to her, "What in the hell are you doing? I could arrest you for this."

Good said she was surprised by his reaction and told him to stop yelling at her.

Marshall described Good in his report as "highly agitated and uncooperative." She reportedly told him she was aware he was a police officer, but drove to where she felt safe.

"I don't care who you are I don't have to stop on a county road, I'm a single female," Marshall quoted her as saying.

After Good refused to listen to how her actions put her and others in danger, Marshall said he arrested her.

Good, who said she did not resist the arrest or make any further comments, claims the officer bruised her arm while leading her to his police car and continued to "bully" her at the jail by claiming Advil and other medications she had were controlled substances.

Good, who reportedly has no prior criminal record, said as a nurse, she is accustomed to following rules.

The NYPD detective who was caught on video chewing out an Uber driver has been stripped of his shield and gun, and will be placed on modified duty, police officials said.

Detective Patrick Cherry has been removed from the department’s elite Joint Terrorism Task Force and will be doing desk duty until he is officially transferred out of the prestigious division.

“No good cop should watch that video without a wince,” Commissioner Bill Bratton said at a Wednesday press conference. “Because all good cops know that officer just made their jobs a little bit harder.”

“In that kind of encounter, anger like that is unacceptable,” Bratton continued. “In any encounter, discourtesy and obscene language like that is unacceptable.

“That officer’s behavior reflected poorly on everyone who wears our uniform.”

The incident was being investigated by the Internal Affairs Bureau before being taken over by the Civilian Complaint Review Board, police said.

Leadwood Police Officer Jay R. Bellis, 38, is facing a felony child abuse charge. He’s accused of throwing a four-year-old child into a wall and causing him to hit his head on the kitchen cabinets on February 24. A three-year-old informed police about the incident.

The abusive officer admitted to the assault on the very young child stating that he had lost his temper. He’s also admitted to injuring the boy’s ear and causing it to bleed after he misbehaved at his daycare, The Daily Journal reported. It is unclear if the two acts he admitted to were part of a pattern or related to the same incident.

Bellis was working for the Leadwood Police Department from 2011 until last year. The admitted child abuser then moved from the Leadwood PD to St. Francois County Sheriff’s Department, where he worked from March of 2014 to February 25 of this year. He left the department one day after the abuse. It is currently unclear why he left, if he was terminated, or if it was his choice.

On March 12, Bellis returned to the Leadwood Police Department and despite his history of assaulting 4-year-olds, he was promoted to Sergeant shortly after his arrival.

The condition of the child, as well as the identity or relation to the police officer, have not been made public.

The officer is facing a Class C felony which means he is facing up to 7 years in prison with a minimum of one year if convicted. The abuse is considered to be “Class C” because it resulted in serious emotional or physical injury.

Bellis handed in his gun on Tuesday, presumably in preparation to turn himself in. The officer’s bond is set at $50,000.

The FBI laboratory, the nation's premier facility for the examination of forensic evidence, lost a critical hair sample collected from the charred debris of an arson fire at the home of a high-ranking Edison police official two years ago, documents show.

The sample was one of two hairs found among the remains of a makeshift incendiary device set ablaze on Capt. Mark Anderko's front porch on May 20, 2013. An Edison officer, Michael Dotro, was subsequently charged with aggravated arson and five counts of attempted murder for allegedly setting the fire.

DNA analysis conducted on the second hair showed it did not come from Dotro, 37, or his wife, according to the FBI's lab report, a copy of which was obtained by NJ Advance Media. Dotro's lawyer, Robert Norton, confirmed the report's findings.

Taken together, the lost hair and the sample that excluded Dotro could make it more difficult for the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office to prove the officer started the fire.

A mother is demanding answers after a Facebook photo surfaced showing her teenage son brutally beaten and tied up by his neck while serving time at a Georgia prison.

In the jarring photo, 18-year-old Cortez Berry, who was sentenced for a 2011 carjacking and robbery, is seen hunched down with a swollen eye in front of two shirtless young men, one who holds the end of a makeshift leash.

The photo is believed to have been taken by fellow inmates at Al Burruss Correctional Training Center before somehow uploaded to Facebook on Friday.

he U.S. Justice Department is reviewing an ongoing internal investigation by the Oxnard Police Department surrounding allegations that the city’s police officers put so-called shooting tattoos on their left shoulders after they were involved in shootings with a suspects, according to a spokesman for the department in Los Angeles.

“I can tell you that we are reviewing the matter. I will not comment on any specific allegations or any specific questions that you have posed. Also, I cannot give you a timetable as to how long our review will take,” stated Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the Justice Department in an email sent Tuesday.

In an interview Tuesday, Police Chief Jeri Williams said the investigation is ongoing, and she didn’t know when it would conclude.

“I don’t have a time frame right now but it is an ongoing investigation,” said Williams.

American Justice also learned that the city of Oxnard has hired a San Francisco law firm to conduct an independent investigation surrounding the shooting-tattoo allegations.

A former Oxnard police officer told American Justice Notebook said when gun smoke coming out of the barrel is added to the shooting tattoo, this indicates that the shooting was fatal.

The Bernalillo County District Attorney says APD officer Pablo Padilla committed a felony when he kneed a UNM law student in the groin last April.

The district attorney filed charges in state District Court on Tuesday, alleging Padilla committed aggravated battery with great bodily harm when he kicked Jeremy Martin hard enough to rupture one of his *********. The DA also charged Padilla with another felony, tampering with evidence, for allegedly deleting video of the incident from a cellphone.

Body camera and cellphone video captured Martin screaming in agony and cursing at Padilla as the on-duty officer kicked him during a traffic stop. APD said Martin refused to sit on a curb, defying Padilla’s commands.

Sam Bregman, who represents Jeremy Martin in a civil suit against the city, said his client is committed to seeing Padilla held responsible. “This is a bad cop,” Bregman told KRQE News 13 in an interview Wednesday, “and he shouldn’t be on the streets.”

Padilla’s attorney, Erlinda Johnson, said Martin escalated the situation by refusing to sit down. She said Padilla was doing what he was trained to do.

“Basically, you’re supposed to aim for a major leg muscle so the individual doesn’t resist,” she said. “Unfortunately, he missed, and he ended up striking Mr. Martin in the groin area.”

Johnson said Padilla exercised “poor judgement” by deleting video of the incident from Martin’s passenger’s cellphone, but says it wasn’t tampering with evidence. “You wouldn’t have a lapel camera video in that case,” she said.

A federal jury has awarded a California woman $15,000 after she says a Utah Highway Patrol officer illegally searched her car.

Sherida Felders was traveling from California to Colorado with two teenage boys when the UHP pulled her over for speeding in 2008. The jury ruled officers brought out a drug-sniffing dog and conducted an illegal search.

Trooper Brian Bairett suspected her of more than just speeding.

Civil rights attorney Bob Sykes said the evidence was suspect. Her Jesus license plate, a single ignition key, a dog and an air freshener were signs to him that she was transporting drugs.

"He asked me out of the blue if I had any methamphetamine, any cocaine or crack in my vehicle. So he repeated that again and I said ‘no.’ He said, ‘So you don’t mind if I search your car?’ I said, ‘Yes I do mind,’ " Felders said.

They were forced from their car.

Sykes said they were devastated by their treatment and it has impacted their view of law enforcement. He also says that the officer’s actions would have been ignored by the UHP if not for the jury.

“His agency did an investigation and found no wrongdoing, so he gets away with a constitutional violation unless a jury stands up to him and takes action which they did,” Sykes said.

He thinks Bairett should be punished.

March 4, 2015 8:20PM: Hunt County Sheriffs Officers storm into a private residence, refusing to present a warrant or Court Order for inspection then assault a 38+ week pregnant citizen, veteran & mother who is handcuffed while two Hunt County CPS investigators watch in silence. The 18 month old child in question was standing in the middle of the room when the physical assault began and he watched in horror as Hunt County Sheriffs beat his mother in front of him. He can be heard screaming and crying in the video.

The Mother was then transported to the Hunt County Detention Center where she remained in a processing/holding cell for 6 days, sleeping on the floor and with fluorescent lights illuminated 24 hours a day.

She repeatedly told medical personnel she had been assaulted during her arrest and asked to have her injuries documented; everyone declined to photograph or annotate the injuries, saying that the only way to accomplish that would be to file a complaint with Internal Affairs.
The 18 month old child was removed from the home of his maternal grandparents and placed into foster care; where he remains to this day.

Many have asked for more details...

My friend, an Iraqi war veteran, who is a mother of an infant and was 9 months pregnant at the time of this incident. She was a victim of domestic abuse and left the home with her young son. An over reaching and over zealous CPS got involved and told her they needed her whereabouts to do a health and safety check on her son. She invited them to her parents home. They arrived with 3 sheriff's department deputies who announced they were taking the child. When she questioned the CPS worker and asked to see the court order, she was deemed noncompiant, and beaten, while restrained, in front of her child, and thankfully in front of home security cameras. You can clearly hear her scream "I'm pregnant!" right before one deputy repeatedly punches this restained mother.

She was taken to jail and her son was placed in foster care even though there were family members willing to care for the child. She was charged with assulting a police officer although she denies any assault took place. While in jail she repeatedly asked to have her injuries examined and documented and was fearful for her unborn child. The jail nurse said she didn't want to get involved fearing for her own job. No prenatal care was offered either. She was segregated because she was pregnant in an isolation cell where she slept on bare concrete and blankets and the lights were left on 24 hours a day. She was awakened every 15 minutes not because she made any threats of self harm but because that was the procedure in the isolation cells. She remained there for 6 days and when released she immediately went to her OB/GYN. They were able to take pictures of her injuries still present 8 days after the attack. They were also able to verify that these injuries were not present before as they saw her the day before the incident. They also documented that she lost weight while in captivity, not a good thing for a pregnant woman.

She gave birth to another son soon after being released and once again CPS swooped in and confiscated the newborn at the hospital and placed him with a family member with severely restricted visits destroying the bonding and breastfeeding process.

I am pro-police. They have a thankless, dangerous job. But there are bad apples who have no business being police officers. There are also bad departments who through their bad leadership set an environment where this behavior is taught and encouraged.

I have known Deanna Jo since we served in Iraq together. It is not cliche when I say we went through some sh** together there. There is a very short list of people who I say I trust with my life blindly. She is one of them.

Deanna was first victimized in a domestic incident then once again by CPS and the sheriff's office. There needs to be questions asked and accountability of this shocking incident.